Telecommunication networks provide for the transmission of information across some distance through terrestrial, wireless or satellite communication networks. Such communications may involve voice, data or multimedia information, among others. Typically, a user or customer to the telecommunications network utilizes a communication device, such as a telephone, to transmit and receive one or more communications to and from another user of the network. Thus, the network provides any number of components interconnected in such a manner as to facilitate the transmission of communications between two or more users of the network.
As more and more customers are added to a telecommunications network, the flow and handling of the various communications transmitted across the network (known as traffic) becomes important to prevent slow or improper processing of the transmitted communications. For example, many of the components of the network are limited in the number of communications that can be processed at any one time. Providing too many communications to the component for processing at one time may result in dropped communications, mishandled communications or a malfunction of the component. Thus, a properly functioning telecommunications network generally manages the flow of traffic through the network to maximize the efficiency of the traffic flow and prevent overloading any one component or system of the network
One method to ensure that a component of a network is not overloaded is by hard-wiring or dedicating communications to a particular component. For example, many networks dedicate a particular component to receive communications from a set number of user communication devices. This particular component is then wired directly to the ingress port for the user's communication devices such that the component is dedicated to process the communications related to that ingress port. However, this type of network structure can be inefficient for several reasons. For example, a component of the network may, at any one time, be processing far fewer communications then the component is capable of processing, depending on the number of ports being used by customers at that time. In another example, a customer's needs may increase over time such that more ports or network components are requested by the customer. However, the addition of more ports or components to the customer may be costly or inconvenient for the customer.
It is with these and other issues in mind that various aspects of the present disclosure were developed.